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WrestleFest
WrestleFest is the flagship Pay-Per-View of the IFW, it is held once a year towards the end of April. The date was established to fall on the last Sunday in April as it is the closest to Founder and President, Patrick Carter's , birthday. Overview The IFW did not instigate WrestleFest til 2000 when the Federation relaunched after a brief hiatus. There have been thriteen instances of this flagship PPV and has seen some of the most unusual, entertaining and awe-inspiring matches in IFW history. WrestleFest has historically shown the best the IFW has to offer and is a 4-hour long spectacular (as opposed to the usual 3-hours for other PPV events). Equally, WrestleFest tends to have 10 matches per event, whilst other PPV's stick to 7. History WrestleFest See: WrestleFest Main Article The first WrestleFest was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 23rd April 2000 and as the IFW had only recently come back was a fairly tame affair in terms of feuds. However, the IFW's first Steel Cage Weapons Match between Sado Masochist and Max Powers was a major highlight of the event, cementing the IFW's reputation as a standard-bearer of this style of match. The Main event of the card was between Travis Williams and Great Helix for the World Championship . Williams retained the title, however, the match was by no means a classic, but did re-inforce Williams' reputation as an exceptional athlete. WrestleFest II See: WrestleFest II Main Article The second edition of WredtleFest was held in Indianapolis, Indiana on 29th April 2001 and was a much more flamboyant affair than the previous event. The event was punctuated by the first ever, live, General Knowledge Quiz between two wrestlers, this was brought about die to the long-term feud between The Eucator and the Education Crew. Dean Strict of the Education Crew won the quiz, it even goes down in the record books as a win. The response from the crowd to the quiz was extremely positive, if a bit surreal to begin with. The main event was for the World Championship, a match in which Patrick Lewis defeated Krakken to become new champion in a genuine classic. WrestleFest III See: WrestleFest III Main Article WrestleFest III was held on 28th April 2002 in Washington, D.C. and only held 8 matches. This was mainly due to the long injury list the IFW had at the time, however, the six-man tag macth involving Patrick Lewis and the Education Crew versus Aguri Nagasawa and Bad Weather going longer than originally planned did not help. The Main event was a World Championship between Travis Doomsday and Ronnie Whiplash , who the previous year had faced each other for the Continental Championship . The result was the same as the previous year as Doomsday defeated Whiplash to retain his title. Although the match was not billed as a hardcore match, or even supposed to be such, it did end up as one, with the referee failing to take action when weapons got involved. WrestleFest IV See: WrestleFest IV Main Article Held on 20th April 2003, this edition of the WrestleFest PPV was the first to be held outside the USA, in Liverpool, England, the hometown of many IFW Superstars. This was also the first WrestleFest to be held outdoors and started off with a minute's silence before the event to mark the Hillsborough Disaster due to the closeness of the 14th anniversary of the event. This WrestleFest had another General Knowledge Quiz, this time between Alec Wise and Mr. Intelligent , Wise won on this occasion, making it 2-0 to Education Crew over The Educator and his sycophantic sidekick. The greatest match in IFW history according to many IFW fans and many in the wrestling industry between Patrick Lewis and Travis Williams also occured at this event. Lewis came ringside to "You'll never Walk Alone" by Gerry and the Pacemakers in honour of the victims of the Hillsborough Disaster, and even dedicated the match to it. Williams on Takewon two days later also dedicated his performance to those victims too. The macth itself was a puriosts dream, and won by Lewis in an epic encounter. The main event almost inevitably failed to live up to the Lewis/Williams match, but Damien Death defeated both Dean Strict and Max Powers for the World Championship. On almost any other card it would have been the highlight. WrestleFest V See: WrestleFest V Main Article Held on 25th April 2004, WrestleFest V was hosted in Charlotte, North Carolina and is considered a classic event by many. Many of the matches were surpassed their hype, and the third ever General Knowledge Quiz was held, this time in a two-on-two affair and the Worl Tag Team Championships were on the line. The Education Crew defeated The Educator and Mr. Intelligent to make it a 3-0 to the Crew at WrestleFest in quizzes. The Falls Count Anywhere in the World Match between Sado Masochist and Damien Death was notable for it's longevity and the Pinfall-Only Finisher Match between Patrick Lewis and Tarvis Doomsday signified the first macth at WrestleFest between the two. Both matches were praised by commentators for both their innovation and entertainment. The World Championship Main Event between Pig Demolition and Great Helix saw Pig Demolition finally win his first world championship after spending almost his entire career with the IFW. A deserved reward for both his loyaly and longevity. WrestleFest VI See: WrestleFest VI Main Article On 24th April 2005, WrestleFest arrived in Orlando, Florida, and although the event did not hit the heights of either of the previous two, was warmly appreciated by both fans and critics alike. The notable matches here included a World Tag Team Championship involving three sets of brothers, which saw the Death Brothers defeating both the Buffy Brothers and the Johnson Brothers to retain their titles. The three sets of brothers fought in an impressive Ladder Match, considered to be one of the best tag matches of all time. This event also saw a Casket Match between Damien Death and Alien Invader , notable not for anything more than the swiftness of the match, lasting less than sixty seconds. Damien Death's entrance lasted longer, although the fans were disappointed it should be noted that this was in fact the expectation of many anyway. The World Championship Match which saw Sado Masochist defeat Travis Williams to become new champion was the first at WrestleFest for the title to be won by submission. The match is also notable for the sheer number of submission attempts and for the number of finishers Sado masochist kicked out of.